National E-Health Strategies:EC-Fund Study Looks at Progress and Barriers

A new study funded by the European Commission is assessing the
progress made to date towards the realisation of European eHealth Action Plan
goals. Good practices and lessons learned constitute the study’s key elements.
The results will be fed into policy recommendations for further accelerating
eHealth implementation.

The study has been assigned to a consortium consisting of
empirica Communication and Tech-nology Research (Germany), The National
Institute for Health and Welfare (Finland), Time.lex (Belgium), Prof. Denis
Protti of the University of Victoria (Canada) and University College, London
(UK), and EMC Consulting Group (Belgium).

The European Commission and EU Member States have long
recognised the potential of ICT-enabled applications to improve citizens’
health, healthcare delivery as well as public health services or medical
research. In its 2004 eHealth Action Plan, the European Commission identi-fied
distinct areas of initiatives required to build up national and pan- European
eHealth infra-structures and to implement solutions in order to move swiftly
towards an ICT enabled, collaborative, personalised and more efficient model of
healthcare.

The eHealth Strategies study will take a closer look at policy
documents, concrete eHealth im-plementations and nationallevel legal and
regulatory as well as administrative support mecha-nisms. In addition, it will
also deal with financial and reimbursement issues. The research effort draws
upon earlier projects funded by the European Commission. In particular, these
include the eHealth ERA study and the Legal framework of interoperable eHealth
in Europe study. A network of National Correspondents will raise data on new
developments and validate existing information for each country.

The compilation and comparative assessment of the results is
informed by concepts from public policy science, notably the policy-cycle
paradigm. This allows an assessment of the advances made, from agenda setting
through implementation to full routine operation. In addition, national
evaluation and assessment activities will be presented where applicable. This
will be complemented by statistical analyses.

The final project report – based on individual country briefs -
will provide a summary of eHealth progress on the European level and
information regarding the spectrum of eHealth solutions available in each
country, the degree of administrative and legal support and financial
incentives for promoting the use of eHealth applications. In that perspective,
the study will furnish strategic information not only for policy-makers but
also healthcare service providers, healthcare industry executives and other
stakeholders.

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